Great taste above the clouds: Six facts about SWISS catering

Whether it’s a small snack, a main course, or the SWISS chocolate as a sweet extra – at SWISS, it’s important to us that you’re well taken care of. Here’s how the food gets on board, how we reduce food waste, and which dish – and yes, it’s a Swiss specialty – is especially popular.

#1 SWISS and Gate Gourmet 
A lot of planning goes into making sure you can enjoy your dinner on a long-haul flight – including the careful preparation of every dish. SWISS works with a strong partner: Gate Gourmet, one of the world’s largest airline caterers, based at Zurich Airport. 
All SWISS menus are created here: from menu planning to careful preparation and delivery. The company has access to the SWISS booking system to plan the required number of meals as accurately as possible and minimize food waste. 
All meals are packaged and labeled with a date to guarantee freshness. The freshly prepared meals and desserts are then loaded into trolleys and made ready for transport to the aircraft. No more than 24 hours may pass between preparation and service on board - though it is often significantly less.

 

#2 Culinary finishing touches on board 
Meals on board are freshly prepared for our guests by our cabin crew – using different methods depending on the travel class. In First and Business Class, combi-steam ovens or dry heat are used. Heating a main course can take up to 20 minutes. 
In Economy Class, meals are regenerated using convection ovens, which usually takes between 25 and 30 minutes.

 

#3 SWISS Saveurs and how we rescue fresh products instead of throwing them away 
With SWISS Saveurs, we offer a variety of culinary options to suit every taste on most of our short-haul flights. The menu changes every six months. When designing it, several factors are considered, including analyzing which products were especially popular in the past and should be kept. 
Options include a chicken breast sandwich, fresh birchermüesli, or a cream cheese pretzel – all based on recipes from Confiserie Sprüngli. Warm dishes such as Zurich-style sliced veal with rösti or pumpkin gnocchi are also available. 
For a quick bite, snacks like Zweifel chips, Darvida crackers, or filled cookies are on offer. 
To reduce food waste on board, we offer a “surprise package” with unsold fresh items at a reduced price on flights that are ending their rotation. This way, you can enjoy a variety of treats from our award-winning culinary concept at a lower price while also contributing to more sustainable travel. In 2024 alone, “SWISS Saveurs To Go” helped us save 3.2 tons of food from going to waste.

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#4 How many meals we load 
Providing for all our guests on long-haul flights requires impressive quantities. 
Each year, we prepare 109,500 meals for the first service in First Class. In Business Class, that number is more than three times higher at 365,000. For Premium Economy, 127,750 meals are prepared. By far the largest share goes to Economy Class, with 1,460,000 meals annually for our passengers. 
And if you are wondering whether there is a clear favorite meal – there is. Our guests particularly love Zurich-style sliced veal with rösti. 
There is also plenty to celebrate above the clouds: in 2025, 31,000 bottles of Cuvée Louise, the champagne served in First Class, were enjoyed. In Business Class, that number was even higher, with 156,000 bottles of Jacquart Brut Mosaïque.

 

#5 SWISS Taste of Switzerland – preparation at a Michelin-Star level 
In SWISS First and SWISS Business, guests on long-haul flights departing from Switzerland can enjoy our award-winning “SWISS Taste of Switzerland” culinary concept. The menus change every three months and are created by selected guest chefs whose outstanding restaurants have been awarded Michelin stars and Gault & Millau points. 
The focus is on regional and seasonal specialties that guarantee a true culinary highlight in the sky. The current menus have been created by Rolf Fuchs of the Panorama restaurant in Bern.

#6 What happens after the flight and why recycling matters 
Recycling is important to us. That’s why waste from onboard service is not disposed of all together. The trolleys from the aircraft are first returned to Gate Gourmet. There, packaging materials are carefully separated, and items such as plastic and glas bottles and aluminum cans are recycled. 
Afterward, the used dishware is systematically cleaned in a large dishwashing facility and transported back to the production kitchen. There, around 80 employees from a work integration project in Bülach sort the cutlery and reload it into the appropriate containers.